OUR OLD MAN OF THE SEA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2466, 1 May 1888, Page 2

OUR OLD MAN OF THE SEA.

to thb editor. Sin,— It seems pretty clear that the ..most important question brought vtn at the interview between the Hon. Mr Fisher and the Auckland Financial Reform Association, and upon which there was a strong leader in list Thursday's Herald, was that of the absolutely ruinous effect upon this colony of the operation of that thumbscrew", that most unjustifiable implement for legalised extortion—the Property Tax. And but too plain is it, that, unless we are speedily relieved therefrom, it is almost impossible to overstate this probable disastrous results to this country. Whatever other form ot tax (and no doubt some form must be substituted) may be chosen, it needs no further showing to prove that the Property Tax is as mischievous and auicidal in its practical effects, as it utterlv bad and unsound in -principle. Such a tax upon capital becomes in effect an intolerable and ever increasing fine upon industry, whether employed in trade, agriculture, mining, or any other direction, And one of its worst points to the unfortu nate taxpayer is that—tho longer the patient, waiting and perseverance required before he may expect a return for his enterprising investment of industry and capital, the oftener the annually recurring scourge can be pplied meantime which the taxpayer must meet, not out o receipts, but expectations ; 'hits the a.ctua per oentage taxed upon the investors pnsiblc profits i* indefinitely m-iltiplied Could any system be devised more cmi pletely killing to the welfare of a oountr-, where enterprise and the investment o oapital is so especially required to be one m raged ? The property tax is hard upon all but of course especially hard upon the smal capitalist, upon the well recognise 1 prin ciplo that it is easier to pay ten shilling; out of ten pounds than sixpence out of tei shillings, if that is all yon have. Then a; to the working man, the Hon. Air Fisher' very practical remarks should bring ele.irl; before his mind he has been very slow tc realise that—tho next best thing to bein; yourself a capitalist, is to catch one am earn his money. But this the villainou property tax, is rendering harder am harder to do ; as it fines the capitalist foi staying and investing his money hero, ant ho naturally very soon takes the hint, am. his capital (if he can find it) and clears, am warns off any other rash intending plungers Bad and vicious as is the principle, and nn just and pernicious, the incidence of th property tax ; its method of levying am collecting, add if possible to its demoralis ing effects upon our community. It tend to tempt and encourage the more strugglitij and half-drowned taxpayer to niisrepresen

his accounts, and so to speak "cook" his ( property statement. The method of valua- • tion and collection of the tax is so utterly j one-sided, and upon the " heads I win, j tails you lose'' principle, that the harried ' taxpayer is sometimes tempted to treat ! the matter as a smart game of bluff and act accordingly (as a matter of fact he would probably only succeed in becoming the raked in one, for the fiendish intricacies of the return form are too much for any ordinary brain, which would i speedily become in a state of semifusion, i and its owner after carefully and scrupulously including amongst his other liabilities ail his overdue subscriptions to charitable societies, his clog tax, his doctor's bills, and his unpaid newspaper cubscripthm so far back as ho can remember, and perhaps further; and debiting his estate with all he thinks lik has lost, say through neglecting to take up shares in the Farmer's Cooperative, the cheese factory, or a mill for the sugar beet industry, through not buying a Waterbury watch, nor joining most of the temperance societies, takes a long breath, and then, in a fatal moment, makes one fal.-.e step, and by a slip of the pen, credits his estate by the amount of his bank overdraft with the appalling though natural result of a good I substantial property return, and a big dividend to the property tax office.) I 1 have referred to him whose hard necessities may have strained his sense of what is ! strictly'straight. But as to those of us, ' happily the great majority, who like > Washington perhaps, do not reckon it ! worth while to lie, why, I say, should we be 1 put to the indignity of not only showing up our threadbareness, but being obliged j even to moke the most of it, in order to try and save ourselves from being shorn any * shorter than we can help ? This, sir, I'say, r must be demoralising, because degrading to the self-respect of' the stili'est backed I ainongsjt i;s, and should not be suffered to > continue. As to the valuation if excessive, t the objector has everything against him ; - for though the Government have the right . to take over his property at a certain per , ceutage over his valuation if thoy think it t too low a one, on the other hand, if ho

protest against the Government valuation as excessive, end name a lower sum, at which he is willing to be rated, or to sell to the Government under the Act, Government need not so purchase it, but yet may disallow his objection, through the Court of <if Beviewers, ajid persist in taxing him upon their own higher valuation. This I have found from personal experience. Then again as to the collection of the tiix. Ivly experience has been, that —if the Government omit to send, or that by any accident or misdirection, or otherwise, that their notice fails to reach the tax-payer, and that lie does not therefore pay his tax for the current year within the prescribed date, he the taxpayer, suffers the penalty, and is fined accordingly. The character of the property tax may, in fact, bo not inaptly til us summed up (to make a seeming bull), that the only fairness about it, is its equal unfairness to all. This being so, why should we, sir, any longer submit without protest to so intolerable an impost, for which nothing can be said save that it tna|,os it easy for any yoqth to put a better face on their budget in bad times by making them yet harder for the suffering nublic. Surely tin's is a matter for all County and Borough Councils and other local bodies to take up, and following the good example just set them in Auckland, send in their protest against the property tax, for it can be scarcely possible that a better and fairer method of taxation may not be found to replace it. An income tax has been suggested, and appears to present the fewest objections. It has, it seems to ine, at least this in its favour, that it is distinctly bused on the '■ capacity to pay," surely) a fundamental necessity for any principle of taxation, and which would 'seam to luvve been entirely ignored in the framing of the property tax, as to which it is unfortunately not too much to say that it has often been paid practically out of the capital upon which it was levied. It seems to me Mr Kdifeir that if we do not without delay set about convincing the Government that this kind of refining process will soon leave nothing but "the shadow of the ass" to tax, that, we deserve to be reckoned like that poor " animal of no account," and to be treated as such.- - I am &c. Thorn'. Hamilton, April 33rd I.SSBB,